counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike but not with that song

Last night, I drove my dear friend and former office mate Irene to the airport. She's heading home to Venezuela for the holidays. I know it's strange, but I enjoy airport runs, especially at odd hours. Hardly anyone was on the road, and I had a very peaceful drive.

I know there's a section of Turnpike that smells terrible followed immediately by a section of the Turnpike that looks pretty terrible, and I often complain that this is a large part of why so many people hate New Jersey. However, once past the smell tonight heading northbound, I kind of enjoyed the lit up skyline and the shadows of Newark Airport and Elizabeth Seaport. I don't necessarily find it beautiful, but it's what I see when I fly home.

The jazz station in Newark kept me company for most of the way (good range in the overnight!) and then I was fortunate enough that my CD player was warmed up and in a good mood for the drive back to Toms River. Since my CD player only works when it feels like it, my Tag Out mix was still in and I enjoyed it immensely on my drive back south.

1. Bon Iver: Woods- appropriately peaceful and interesting
2. DeVotchka: All the Sand in All the Sea- The part that always gets me? Leaving my Walden, or whatever other amazing places I've found myself in life.
3. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes: 40 Day Dream- "Yeah, I know I'm sleeping, 'cause this dream's too amazing."
4. Dawes: When My Time Comes- I've thought about it for hours but still don't know what to say about this song. It needed to be here.
5. Donovan Frankenreiter: Heading Home- Yes I was. Am. I like to think I'm on a constant journey for home.
6. Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime- "You may ask yourself, where does that highway go to?" Yes, yes I do. All the time.
7. OK Go: This Too Shall Pass- such a positive, hopeful song.
8. Bill Withers: Let it Be- I'm picky about my Beatles covers, but this one passes the test and takes a lovely song and puts it in a very positive, upbeat setting
9. Josh Ritter: Long Shadows- I'm not afraid of the dark, we've been here before... just as figurative as it is literal for me.
10. Eels: Fresh Feeling- reminding me it's time for something fresh
11. Florence + the Machine: Cosmic Love- I missed this during staff training, but it meant so much to everyone around me, especially someone in particular who means so much to me (that little sister I acquired, Abi)
12. Old Crow Medicine Show: Wagon Wheel- the opening line "Headin' down south to the land of the pines" was geographically correct for the journey this was intended for (and many of my mini-roadtrips), plus was reminiscent of Noah and Diana singing it all summer, most notably during Licepocalypse
13. Loudon Wainwright III: The Swimming Song- Noah's choice, the opening song for the summer 2011 slideshow, and a very nice illustration of much that I do
14. Bruno Mars: Count on Me- Courtney's choice for the staff slideshow, which I initially whined about (come ON, Bruno Mars?) but was really happy with how perfectly it fit the situation
15. Josh Ritter: Lantern- my choice for the slideshow, a song I absolutely love for its positive words and sound, and how it uses a lantern as a love symbol when a lantern is a symbol of so many other wonderful things in my life
16. Dispatch: Out Loud- except I have the original Bang Bang acoustic version which I can't seem to find online... this closed the slideshow
17. The Low Anthem: The Horizon is a Beltway- It is a beltway, or some other road to somewhere... hopefully with better traffic than the Beltway I frequent the most (the one around D.C.)

I arrived home just in time for sunrise, but I decided to enjoy dawn from the bay in Island Heights, instead of by the ocean, just for something different.

Tree of the day: the pretty little holly tree growing next to the post office that I sat next to for the sunrise. It seems seasonally appropriate.



Good morning from the Jersey shore.

This past Tuesday, I visited New York City. When I sat down to write this entry about it, I thought, "Wow! It's been so long since I've been there!" but then consulting said blog tells me that I was there last in September, during my whirlwind circumnavigation of the city, and before that in late April for a Colbert Report taping, and before that in November, and before that to see Pavement... yeah. Ok, so not that long.

Anyway. I left on a 7 AM bus to the Port Authority so I could be plenty early for my interview on Varick Street. And plenty early I was, but the joy of the Peace Corps lobby is that there is a huge map on the wall and lots of articles everywhere about interesting and beautiful places. Yes, Peace Corps! Yes, I'm excited. It went well!

Afterward, I wandered further downtown to say hello to the World Trade Center before heading up just north of Times Square for lunch with my friend Heather. She took me to this place called Pret which had a vegetarian sandwich that included hummus and avocado, so I was obviously pretty pleased with this arrangement. It was great to catch up and hear about her new job and let her try to talk me into staying in the city till she got off work. Try to? More like, succeed in.

While Heather went back to work, I wandered around Rockefeller Plaza, which is a five minute walk underground from her office. I people watched for a good portion of the 3.5 hours left in her day. Some older woman trying to figure out how to take a picture of the toy soldier statue I was sitting next to using her fancy cell phone camera. Someone got engaged on the ice skating rink. Some mom lost her marbles trying to take her sons' picture in front of the tree because they were making silly facing and goofing off. Some tourists.

After Heather finished work, we took the subway to her neighborhood in Brooklyn and walked a few blocks to the Park Slope Ale House, where I had a lovely evening with her and my friend Ross. I love having friends who are just cool enough to get along with anyone, including other friends who they don't know. It was well worth the time wasted at Rockefeller.

Beer of the day: Harpoon's Chocolate Stout, a very lovely chocolatey stouty stout.
Tree of the day: Norway Spruce (the Rockefeller tree)

The trip home was not so pleasant. Sometimes I forget how freaking far Brooklyn is from Manhattan via subway, because I probably left Park Slope around 9:15 and didn't get back home till 1:30 AM despite arriving to Port Authority slightly after 10. Dear goodness. No Toms River bound buses till 11:30. Construction at the Bus Terminal. Construction at the helix.

But a day well spent, the tree is lovely as ever. Heather, if you're reading this, go see the tree for the first time in your life.

more adventures from the couch

Today I had my 29th career nerve block... well, the career being my life.

I was diagnosed with RSD just over 11 years ago after spraining my right ankle in a pretty severe fashion three months prior to that. The pain was super abnormal, as were the colors my foot and ankle were turning. When I met my pain doctor, he went to take the pulse in my foot and said, "Whoa. I could chill a can of soda on your leg." So, that was awesome. I was the youngest patient he had.

I still am.

I've come a long, long way from spending nine months on crutches during freshman year of high school (and several months of sophomore and junior years, and freshman year of college). I run! I play sports! I went skiing again that one time! I drive all over the place and hike mountains and climb lighthouses!

It's actually a pretty cool accomplishment, but wouldn't be possible without the occasional "tune up" as my pain doctor calls it. Well, this whole unemployment thing means my health insurance is just about up, so I got a preemptive nerve block and a new prescription for my magical non-narcotic super pain relievers.

I don't know why I'm sharing this, I'm just kind of bored and felt like sharing the adventure that is a nerve block, followed by the adventure that is spending the day on the couch reading Harry Potter and watching the first season of Community on DVD. I had a picture of the x-ray of my spine with the needle in it from a nerve block several years ago, but I can't find it anywhere. I was really writing this with the intent of posting that picture. But now that I'm this far--

Nerve block. I get to lay on a table on my stomach with pillows under my belly because I'm too skinny for the x-ray machine (an improvement over having to arch my back with the needle in it). Doctor and I exchange jokes about the ridiculous rainbow knee socks I wore to my first appointment in September 2000 (what, my leg was freezing, and they were neat). Doctor takes an x-ray of my back with a little pointer on it to find the neighborhood of the nerve and draws crosshairs on my back with a pen. Doctor injects local anesthetic into my back around the L4 (bonus points if you know what the hell, or where the hell that is). Doctor sticks a big needle into the nerves along my spinal cord in that same neighborhood. Doctor takes a bunch of moving x-rays (fluoroscopes!) of my back to make sure he's poking the right nerve. I feel pressure in my right hip and probably leg. Then doctor shoots some lidocaine through that big needle. More intense pressure, and also the feeling like something is peeing on my leg-- it gets warm and spreads down toward my foot. Within ten minutes of the initial small talk, we undo everything and I'm left with some pen marks, a hole, sometimes a bruise, and a numb hip that makes me walk like I'm drunk.

After the drunk swagger wears off, it's like restarting your computer. The nerves in my leg get their act together, and I can continue to walk and have other adventures.

I love walking.

That was my day. That almost counts as an adventure?

Edited on April 5, 2012 because I found the picture:

adventures from the couch

(as opposed to adventures from couch to couch/couch surfing)

It's true, life has been quiet since I left camp. Well, maybe that's only partially true.


JACK did the Lighthouse Challenge again (and it was awesome again). It was pretty much the same except we were missing our vowel changed out route a little, starting with the first lighthouse to the north rather than the one that was farthest away, and ending in home territory with Barnegat Light.

There was a new stop this year: US Life Saving Station 30. It was AWESOME. Ocean City, NJ recently reacquired the site and the house that sits upon it. It has a long way to go with renovations but the amount of work that they've put into it already it impressive, including a ton of research on the people who served at that station and some comprehensive plans for funding the place. Go historic preservation!



I spent a week in Virginia/D.C. catching up with various college friends who recently returned from Peace Corps service and grad school abroad (as well as some who have just been in the D.C. area all this time who I haven't seen in a while). This included favorite things like visiting my alma mater in Fredericksburg, wandering around the National Mall, having a few good beers with a few good friends; this also included a few new adventures-- camping in Bull Run (I lit a beautiful one match fire!), visiting the Old Post Office Tower, and also Ballston (but there's nothing really to see there).



I took a trip up north to Florham Park, where my friend Becky and her awesome baby Arlo are staying for the time being. This was after the freak Halloween nor'easter snow nonsense, which here at the shore was nothing out of the ordinary (aka: no snow) but up north really did a number on the trees. Streets were lined with piles of branches that were almost as tall as me. Trees and huge branches were down everywhere. There were so many leaves left on the trees that the added weight of snow was just too much. However, the roads were clear and so I had an awesome visit with these people (aside from the mourning of some impressive trees).



I've taken three trips to Double Trouble State Park in the last week and a half, after a first trip that yielded me several cups of fresh cranberries. How much do I love eating fresh good things? So much. How much do I love New Jersey? So so much. You see how this became three trips. I've been sharing the cranberries far and wide, so it's not like I'm stockpiling tons and tons of them, but I probably picked about 50 cups of them. The state park used to lease the bogs to cranberry farmers, but no one has leased those bogs last year or this year, so they're just full of gorgeous little cranberries, free for the taking. So I did, and you should too. They're really, really good.



I also traveled to Edison for Friend Thanksgiving with some wonderful people who live in that area. There were several vegetarians in the crowd, so aside from the turkey, everything was veggie friendly, including stuffing! and gravy! Things that omnivores take for granted. This was the first time that I can recall since going vegetarian nearly 8 years ago that I've been so completely stuffed, I could barely function. It was good.



You know, I was going to write this post about all of the adventures I've had in my living room at home since not working. It really seemed like I've spent way more time on the couch in the past five weeks, so I thought I'd recount the little things I've accomplished in that time. However, as per usual, it seems I've been up to more than I realize.

Couch potato activities have mostly included rereading the Harry Potter series, but I've also done a lot of cooking (and baking things using those cranberries) and a lot of applying for jobs (but I don't want to talk about that because it's a little depressing). I purged my closet. I've been getting all of the regular checkups a person should while they still have health insurance. I'm having a nerve block tomorrow, and in preparation, I got several John Green books out of the library as well as the Teach Yourself Icelandic guide and the first season of Community. I'm singing in choir and working with the punky middle schoolers again. I've watched a lot of Big Bang Theory with my dad. I will start running again one of these nights.



So I suppose the adventure hasn't been so bad, nor has it been so confined to the couch. I am looking forward to figuring out what's next and having a little more structure to my days though.